Twenty Killed, Dozens Injured as Trains Collide in Italy

The rescue operation is complicated as it happened in the middle of the countryside.

A man watches the scene of a train accident after two commuter trains collided head-on near the town of Andria, in Italy. (Photo: AP)

Twenty people died and dozens were injured when two passenger trains collided head-on in southern Italy on Tuesday, a regional official told reporters.

The force of the impact crumpled carriages and sent debris flying into an olive grove that flanked the single stretch of track in countryside between the towns of Corato and Andria.

“Unfortunately the death toll has risen to 20,” said Giuseppe Corrado, the deputy head of the local province. He appealed for blood donors to go to local hospitals.

Firemen worked in fierce summer heat after the crash, which happened at around 11.30 am, picking through the wreckage and shattered carriages in search of other victims.

“The rescue is complicated because this happened in the middle of the countryside,” said Luca Cari, a fire service spokesman, the sound of crickets ringing out as rescue teams started to extract bodies from the site.

There was no immediate indication of what had caused the two trains to be travelling towards each other on the same line and the Transport Ministry said it was dispatching two investigators to the region of Puglia to look into the disaster.

“We won’t stop until we get a clear explanation over what happened,” Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said, cutting short a visit to Milan in northern Italy to return to Rome. He was due to travel to Puglia later in the day.